A poll reported in USA TODAY two weeks ago asked Americans the question
“What public institutions do you trust?”
The respondents reported high confidence in
The military 43%
Small business 39%
Scientific community 30%
Organized religion 18%
Banks, financial institutions 6%
18%. Wow! That’s pretty low!
With the occasional fallen preacher riddled with sex scandal, thousands of priests accused of sexually abusing children, and pointed political views preached from the pulpit, there is obviously going to be fallout.
Americans need a reason to get inspired again about religion before their confidence in its value is going to rise.
Or, is there an inevitable movement underfoot moving thought away from formalized religion and man-made ritual to the individualized practice of spirituality?
I believe religious organization has a vital role to play in society and can bring great blessings into people’s lives. But it seems to have lost sight of its moorings and original purpose.
Religion should be about spiritualizing thought, worshipping God, loving your neighbor as yourself, and bringing improvement to the world around you. These are worthy values that I believe most people support. But right now it appears that the majority of people have little confidence in organized religions’ ability to get the job done properly.
Hmmm….
Thank you Evan for sharing your thoughts on this subject. I agree with you that ‘organized religion’ is currently a turn off for most people. I have refined my sharing of CS accordingly. I focus on our individual relationship with Truth and with divine Love as the basis for my dialogue with people. This fundamental relationship is common to us all. I start here and it has been very effective. It dissolves any resistence, because I’m not focussing on church per se, but on Truth and Love instead. Hope this helps others too. Have a great day. Lovingly, Leah
Even, you and your readers might be interested in Phyllis Tickle’s new book, The Great Emergence–How Christianity is Changing and Why”.
I believe she provides context to the survey results. Here’s a quote from one of the reviews on Amazon: “Tickle examines a phenomenon she refers to as the Great Emergence, a once-every-500-years trend within Christianity, in which a new and “more vital” form of the religion emerges. She believes such a development is happening now.”
Todd H.
I’ll have to get Tickle’s new book. There’ll be some interesting material…
Being one who rejected organized religion most of my life, I finally did voluntarily return to it in my early “golden years.” Thinking I really must have missed something in my life, I purposely sought, found and joined an orthodox church and for two solid years immersed myself in bible study groups, small and large. I was initially driven by an idea planted in mind from “new” physics, which concludes that the universe is much more a great thought than it is a great thing. Naturally, it seemed like I would find in biblical study the missing link. But, alas, unanswered questions, replete with the orthodox idea that “God is simply too mysterious to understand— so just believe this!” left me cold. Wholly dissatisfied, I left.
One year later it was Mrs. Eddy and her Christian Science, who chased down through the scriptures for me what I had been seeking. She pinned down that elusive thread of “Golden Thought.” It’s that hem of Truth I just knew was there and which that physicist had himself touched from his material studies. It’s that thread which so many well meaning, spiritual, religious individuals sense in the bible, and accounts for its being the number one “seller” year after year. Like I did, these people today are drifting away from religion because its structure and teaching hides Truth, Life and Love, hides the unreality of sin, disease and death, and gives only lip-service to loving your neighbor. It’s done thru animal magnetism of a type which suppresses not only our sense of being “spiritual and not material,” but also our innate spiritual self-sufficiency. It’s all hidden for reasons, as Thomas Jefferson said, of “Pence and Power” (of the church). Our leader states repeatedly, and in so many different ways, the need for an open, receptive mind as the first step to allowing through thoughts portal Truth and Love. If organized religions were accepting of minds open to Truth, people would not be dissatisfied or drifting away, and instead, would be trusting their Princes of the Pulpit to lead them forth into the promised land.
It’s heartening to see that figure actually, it means for me that people are getting wiser and operating from what feminists call a ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’. Many people I speak to in Australia feel the same, they are ‘spiritual’ but not religion. Religion has brought it on itself by being too dogmatic, sexist, authoritarian etc.
Perhaps this poll should be taken with a grain of salt. USA Today leans a bit to the left. This should be taken into consideration when examining these poll results.
Rasmussenreports.com has found that 8 out of 10 Americans say their faith is somewhat important to them. 57% say their faith is very important. 63% of adults say they pray at least once a day.
The organization doing the polling matters. Hopefully your readers will find this encouraging.
This is still a religious country.
Thanks everyone for sharing your thoughts and observations. You have provided a deep discussion on this issue! I’ve been thinking a lot about Ken’s comment on churches being closed to the progressive understanding of the Bible. Are we all as open to the expanded view of reality Jesus taught as we should be? Probably not. It’s a very wide and infinite view, and to see it we have to be willing to drop old limited notions of reality. This often takes loads of humility and willingness to reform/change for the better.
This poll is shocking, because after I worked for the Army, I would not recommend believing every word they say. On the other hand, it indicates that people have fallen back to a rather Old Testament attitude of Christianity – if you get hit, hit back. The military, e.g., promotes that in a way. I couldn’t even say I don’t understand, because quite frankly, are we ready to have Job’s faith and patience when our prayers appear to be returned with failure?